Aces & Spades

Reality

Massimo:

The girl in the white dress stopped beside a blossom tree, gently caressing each of the petals between her finger tips.

I'm right behind her, but she doesn't seem to notice me.

"Where am I?" I ask her again but she doesn't turn around.

She doesn't answer me.

Instead, she starts walking off again. Starting to get tired of chasing her around, I grab at her arm.

She shakes me off violently, pushing me backwards towards the grass.

Only then, is when I catch a glimpse of her ruby lips. A small, familiar freckle on the left side of her chin.

Before I could meet her eyes, she turns away again, running off into the distance.

I try to get up, but it felt as though something was holding me down.

"Sir. Can you hear me? Sir?"

An unfamiliar voice echoes through my mind.

"Sir..."

A woman's voice.

"He's suffered severe trauma to his head..."

It fades in and out.

The girl seemed to have disappeared by the time I stand up. Ignoring the voices, I try to find her.

Isabella:

52 hours, 45 minutes and 26 seconds since Massimo disappeared.

52 hours, 45 minutes and 26 seconds since my heart tore itself apart.

When Luca and I checked the town, there was no sign of him, not even a trace. I had now been assigned the job of staying at home, waiting for Massimo to come back.

But I know he won't.

Every second longer I sit here, is a second more wasted in not being able to find him.

I stop my pacing halfway across the living room, grabbing my phone from the coffee table, I call Luca for the fifth time since this morning.

He picks up after the third ring. "Any sign of him?"

I hear him let out a sharp breath. "Nothing yet."

I slump onto the creme sofa, holding one of the cushions tightly against my chest.

"Isabella I think it's best if you head back to the states-"

"No." I cut him off sharply. "Not until I know he's safe."

That's all I want. He doesn't have to come back if he doesn't want to, all I need to know is that he's okay.

I hear Luca sigh over the phone. "Massimo told me you're stubborn but I never believed him."

I feel a laugh bubble its way through my system. My first laugh in days.

"We still have to search some of the remaining warehouses in the south, but if he's not there, there won't be anywhere else to check." He says.